


fire's pledge

by Alectrona (DreamyRequiem)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, au where lea and kairi are siblings, au where lea got his keyblade rlly early, one shot series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-05-24 06:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14949140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Alectrona
Summary: What's a keyblade? He thought.Something you can fight with, Ven replied, something to fight this darkness with.





	1. radiant garden

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta`d

Lea stared at the writhing mass of shadows. Their glittering amber eyes made the hair on the back of his neck rise--because these things were not natural. He threw one of his frisbees and watched it bounce uselessly off its head. Lea clenched his other frisbee.

What was he supposed to do against something like these?

He threw another one that tried to get closer to him and Isa, which did nothing again. It did, though, make it back off. Lea clenched his hands as he backed away, Isa's lethargic body pressed against his shoulder.

"Isa." He whispered out loud. "Wake up, please."

Lea's friend barely stirred, blood dripping off his face and onto Lea's shoulder. Shit, Lea thought, How were they supposed to get out of this if Lea didn't have anything fight with and Isa was practically unconscious?

 ** _Hey, Lea._** A voice muttered in his ear. **_You do have something. Don't you remember? It was an accident, but...it was close enough to a true keyblade, close enough to my heart that it was as good as a keyblade._**

Oh, great, he's going insane. That just compounded literally everything else: Isa may be dying, shadows were alive and trying to kill them, and Lea was going insane on top of it. He bared his teeth in a tired smile. Maybe he should just let it happen--

 ** _LEA._** The voice practically screamed in his ear. **_It’s Ven and I need you to summon your keyblade. I know you can do it--I gave it to you, even by accident. Summon it, and save yourselves._**

He bit the inside of his lip. The heck was a keyblade and who would he be able to summon one? He's never heard of a something like that before. Wouldn't knowing something about it be a prerequisite to even having it?

Well, you know now, don't you? The voice reminded. Also did you forget who I am? Seriously, I got you memorized but you didn't get me memorized?

"Ven." Lead mumbled, suddenly remembering the blond boy he had met all those years ago. It had been a few months, since then. Maybe it was because right after that, they had gotten involved in the very controversial experiments.

The ones Ansem the Wise had tried to put a stop to.

Should've been a sign, Lea thought as the shadows grew closer, as if sensing his weakening resolve. Once Ansem tried to stop the experiments, they should've backed off from them. Lea always listened to his bad feelings: Why did he ignore them this time?

 ** _Darkness clouds all_** , Ven said into his ear, **_Even our better senses. Take a deep breath--and reach for the light in your heart. Whether that be people, or an experience--I know you can do it._**

"Okay." Lea muttered out loud. "I'll try." 

Think of--people. Isa, leaning on his shoulder, his little sister out there and needing him. Those two were the most important to him in the entire world and for them he'd do anything.

Something burned in his hand and Lea looked down. A strange sword-thing sat in his hand, the handle shaped like the frisbees he used. The shaft was made of a swirling flame, extending out into a spinning flare at the end.

"Right, okay." He stared at the sword--keyblade?--and then looked up at the shadows. A few of them had backed away, silently wriggling at him. The others began slinking towards him and he grimaced: He had no idea how to use this thing! Never mind the fact that he was carrying Isa.

 _ **This is all I can do, now. T-ke care o- yo--se--**_ Ven's voice muttered, slowly fading in and out. 

Lea puffed out a breath before he swung the keyblade on the closest shadow's head thing. It flopped down on the ground and then merged with the ground, like a real shadow. When it raised up from the ground again, he smacked it one the head once more and it vanished into wisps of shadows.

The other shadows approaching him stopped for a second and then backed away, chittering silently. Lea's gaze flicked to the door and he started edging towards it, holding out the keyblade's teeth to keep the shadows back.

Most of them scittered back, unwilling to share the fate of their fellow. The others, however, slowly edged forward. Lea grimaced and pressed himself against the door, waiting for it to react to them and open up. When he finally heard the whish of the automatic door, Lea immediately backed through it and poked the lock option with the tip of the keyblade.

Several of the shadows leapt forward and right into the door as it sapped shut. Lea let out a breath as he slumped against the wall, Isa sliding down with him. "Okay." He muttered out loud to himself. "Okay, we're alive. Just...take a breather and then we can go. Isa?"

The blue haired boy groaned quietly and went quiet again. Lea sighed and then slowly pulled his friend back up and limped back through the hallways and towards the castle courtyard. A couple of shadows were around and he slapped them before they got too close to Isa. Lea grimaced as the darkness slowly faded, with the ascent to the surface.

When they finally broke through up to the surface, Lea squinted against the faint light and then grimaced at the sky: Instead of the sun, there was an orb of darkness, which seemed to suck up not just all the light, but also parts of the very land they stood on. Shaking, Lea let the keyblade vanish and pulled Isa further onto his back. He just had to run through, and get somewhere safer.

He ignored the shadows fluttering about just out of sight--didn't Xehanort call them Heartless?--and continued racing through the neighborhood. He stopped at his home, which was empty of every one he knew. Lea crossed the way to Isa's house, noting that it was as empty as his own house. Where had everyone gone?

As he went further into the neighborhood, he noted that it was dead silent. The labs were understandably silent, but the silence here scared him. There were hundreds of people who lived here--where were they all??

That was when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him and Isa into an alleyway. Lea tried to shrug them off, but it was difficult when he was carrying another person on his back. "Stop it." The person hissed and Lea paused, recognizing the sound of the old man who had helped him and Isa out with ice cream a lot before they went to work in the experiments.

"Sorry." Lea muttered. "I--We're in trouble, aren't we?"

The man, Scrooge Mcduck, sighed. "Yes, we are. I have...a way to get some place safe: There's already people there waiting for me. I wanted to make sure there was no one else here..."

Lea shook his head. "Besides me and Isa, I don't think there is. At least, I haven't seen anyone."

"Then I suppose we'll just have to go." Scrooge grimaced. "We cannot wait forever: I might come back later but...Come, quickly."

The three of them headed into the market district just past the residence district. Scrooge went into a rundown building, where a group of teenagers and a familiar blond man waited. Said main grimaced at them. "Only found two others, huh?"

Scrooge nodded seriously. "Unfortunately yes. I suggest everyone get onto the Gummi Ship--there's nothing we can do here, now."

Lea let out a breath as a strange circle of green light appeared on the ground ahead of them. The other teenagers were ushered onto it--along with a little girl--and the blond man, Cid, made to follow them before stopping and turning to Lea.

The two stared at each other before Cid grunted. "I can take that kid for ya, Lea. We need to get his face cleaned up too..." Lea hesitated, unwilling to let Isa go and Cid seemed to see that as he sighed. "Alright, fine. Get going, okay?"

Cid took a step back to let Lea go first. He nodded at the older man before stepping into the green circle, glancing back at Scrooge and Cid. Lea didn't get a chance to say anything when he vanished and then saw the group of kids and teenagers he'd seen earlier.

"Uh." He muttered out loud.

One of the teenagers jumped forward with a cry. "Lea!" He jolted as the teenger was revealed to be Aerith, one of Isa's neighbors. He wasn't very close to her but when your whole world falls apart, you cling to anyone you kind of know.

"Hey, Aerith." He muttered to her. "Could I...Does anyone have anything to clean injuries?"

The brunet teenager furrowed his brow. "...I think there might be in the supplies." He turned around and began poking around in a panel labeled as, straightforward, 'supplies.'

Behind the teenagers, an old man with the longest beard Lea had ever seen was poking at what seemed to be the control panel. Lea wondered what he was doing as blond man appeared with a sparkle of green light. It was starting to get rather crowded, Lea thought as he slowly slid Isa off his shoulders.

Cid slipped through the crowd up to the old man. "Merlin, let me..." The two argued over the control panel as the brunet boy touched Lea's arm.

Lea winced and looked up at him. "I'm...Leon," The boy said, "Who're you and who is he?" Leon dropped a cloth into Lea's hand as he spoke.

He looked down at the cloth and began cleaning off the cuts on Isa's face. "I'm Lea. He's...Isa." Lra made a face and then looked up at Aerith, pausing in his cleaning. "Aerith, do you...know where Kairi is?"

Aerith flinched. "I'm--Sorry. I don't know. Kairi is just..." Gone. Like everyone else in Radiant Garden, vanished like they had never existed. Lea ignored the tears burning in his eyes and went back to cleaning Isa's wounds. Two wounds, crossing into an x across the other boy's face. Who had done that? Lea wished he'd been with Isa went it happened.

"What's gonna happen to us?" The little girl suddenly asked, looking scared.

The other kids exchanged looks: They had no idea. They were lucky that they hadn't disappeared like everyone else had.

Scrooge cleared his throat. "We're going to go somewhere safe." Everyone looked at him and--oh wait, what the hell. Scrooge was no longer a slightly stooping old man. He was now, somehow, a talking duck. His hat and clothes were the same, of course, but the fact that he was no longer human was...creepy.

"What...are you?" Leon asked.

The duck smiled grimly. "I'm from another world: And we're going there."


	2. traverse town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop unbeta`d and all that jazz
> 
> also hey look i finally posted that second thing i said i was going to. i think this is going to be more like....a random set of oneshots that're based in a universe w/ lea getting his keyblade early. so like, only be updated when i finish a thing.

Lea got used to Traverse Town quickly enough.

While it was no Radiant Garden, that proved to be better than anything else. There was no threat of experimentation hanging over the heads of himself or those he cared for. No trying to fulfill Xehanort's ridiculous demands and no threat of dying instantly and terribly.

...Alright, in fairness, that could still happen. It's not as if the Heartless disappeared or stayed only on Radiant Garden. No, there were some in Traverse Town as well. They weren't as dangerous as the massive beasts Lea had briefly fought in Radiant Garden, just little itty bitty shadows.

But despite all that, there was the fact that Isa was still unconscious. Aerith was the closest they had to a cleric and she couldn't figure out why he wouldn't wake up.

At least he was alive, Lea thought as he took out a couple more heartless. The keyblade he wielded, Fire's Freedom, seemed to have an affinity for fire magic--which seemed obvious, considering its name. At the moment it was the only magic he could use which was disheartening.

The keyblade did seem to boost magic and if he could only heal too...he might be able to help Aerith in healing Isa. Because then, perhaps, Isa might wake up. With his friend unconscious and his sister missing, Lea felt like he was alone.

He let his keyblade vanish as the final heartless were defeated. Heartless hunting was the only thing he could do now to get his mind off his problems. If he was honest, it'd be a good idea to get something else, but Lea didn't really feel up to that.

But with his current hunt over, Lea decided to head back home.

Along the way, he ran into Yuffie. Yuffie was pouting just inside the city, by the massive doors. Her elbows rested on her knees, her hands cradling her chin as she glowered out towards the courtyard. Lea slid up next to her to try and follow her gaze.

"Whatcha looking at?" Lea asked finally as he leaned over the young girl.

Yuffie jolted. "A-Ack--" She scooted away from Lea. "What the heck, Lea?! You scared me!"

Lea grinned at her. "Whoops. Sorry about that. But seriously, what are you looking at?" He looked back up, trying to see what's in the courtyard.

She pouted and crossed her arms. "Squall is being dumb again! I want to learn how to fight too, but he won't let me!" Yuffie flopped back against the brick wall.

"Hey now, why do you want to learn to fight so badly?" Lea didn't learn to actually fight until he was place in a situation that meant fight or die. So wanting to learn how to fight was a little strange to him.

Yet...it might actually be a good idea to teach her at some point.

The girl huffed and leaned her arms on her knees. "I wanna protect Traverse Town too! I don't want our new home to die, like Radiant Garden did." Yuffie looked away from him, her head tilted down so that he couldn't see her face.

Hm. "Well, I think Squall has a bit of a point--Let me explain!" He waved a finger in her face. "You're like, what, five? Six?"

She grumbled a quiet '`m Seven.'

"Seven!" Lea snapped his fingers. "Gotcha. Still thought: You're not even in the double digits yet! Maybe when you're ten you can learn. Until then, you think you can leave the fighting up to the older kids?" Granted, Lea didn't like Squall fighting either but...well the kid was stubborn.

Yuffie huffed and crossed her arms, turning away. "You suck, Lea! Leave me alone." She grumbled at him and she slowly scooted away from him, clearly intending to huddle into the corner away from the door--and just away from everyone.

Lea sighed and let it go. The main walled off area of Traverse Town was warded off from heartless anyway, so it was fine if she just hung around like she was. Though he probably should let Cid know where she was so he didn't worry about her.

He jogged his way down the stair way to the main building in front of the courtyard. Squall happened to be standing right where Yuffie had been staring at and Lea had just not been able to see. It was interesting to see that he was sulking too--but that probably because he had an argument with Yuffie.

Ah, these kids.

Watching Squall for a moment before he walked away from the kid. He didn't want to bother Squall when his talk with Yuffie had gone terribly. Lea...really wasn't equipped to deal with kids that weren't Kairi.

Lea slipped into the shop that Cid had set up. While it was a shop, everything was free because there were just a handful of kids and a young man living in Traverse Town. And said young man is Cid himself, which meant he was the only one with actual munny.

Ah, well. If Scrooge was to be believed, Traverse Town might end up with more people if the Heartless destroyed more worlds. So perhaps Cid will be getting some munny after all.

"Hey, Cid?" He called out.

Said blond man turned around and leaned over the counter, away from his lunch. "What's up, kid?" Cid asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

Lea grinned sheepishly. "So, Yuffie might be mad at me?" He offered with a wry smile. "I kinda told her she can't learn how to fight until she's ten."

He winced as Cid pinched the bridge of his nose. "Damn it, kid...Alright, I'll handle it when it gets late. Why was she asking about learning to fight anyway?" Cid asked with a groan.

Nodding along, Lea said, "Gotcha. I just--wanted you to know." Partially so that Cid wouldn't get mad at Lea if Yuffie did something questionable. Cid was a little terrifying when the man got into a rage.

Cid nodded in agreement and turned away. He went back to his lunch and waved Lea away. Lea paused and then backed away before slipping right back out.

Well, at least he wasn't too angry at Lea.

Lea sighed and headed back down the stairs into the courtyard. Squall had moved into the abandoned outdoor cafe area, still sulking. He shook his head at the young boy and turned around to the houses that lines the walls of Traverse Town.

The courtyard and those buildings were the only thing that made up Traverse Town: Outside the three sets of massive doors were simple, empty woods. Lea wondered where everyone would stay if or when they arrived.

He paused as he heard someone running, right towards him. Confused, Lea turned around to the person running and spotted Aerith, her ponytail trailing behind her. She looked worried as she slowed to a stop in front of him, leaning forward to catch her breath.

"Aerith, what's wrong?" Lea asked.

She looked up at him her brown hair curled around her face. "It's...about...Isa." She gasped out.

Lea recoiled. Isa? If...something had happened to Isa, Lea didn't know what he'd do. He shook his head. "What happened?!" He asked--though it sounded more like a demand.

"He--He woke up." Aerith looked up at him with wide and worried eyes.

He froze. Isa was...awake? No longer sleeping? His eyes wide open? Lea let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. A breath he'd been holding since he'd left Radiant Garden. "Show me." Lea whispered.

Aerith nodded and led him back to the house that the seven survivors had taken over. She sped up the stairs and stopped at the top, looking down at him nervously, worriedly. Lea rushed up and stopped next to her as he stumbled over the final step.

"Lea--" He raised a hand and she went quiet before turning around and jogging towards Isa's room. Aerith stopped again, this time right in front of the door and looked at him.

Taking a deep breath, he nodded at her and she pushed the door open. Inside, sitting up in his bed, Isa looked out the window by said bed. Lea stared at him from just outside the bedroom, stunned.

Seeing Isa awake was miraculous, yet...something didn't feel right. What was wrong?

Isa turned his head and looked at him. Bandages still covered most of the blue haired teen's face but at least they weren't red with blood anymore. In fact he didn't look all that terrible. Just very, very tired.

"Isa." Lea muttered quietly.

Said teen blinked at him and said, "Lea? What's...happening? Where are we?"

* * *

Explaining to Isa what had happened had been one of the worst things he'd ever had to do. Telling him their families were gone, that their world had been either destroyed or taken over by heartless? Terrible, awful.

Lea eventually stopped and leaned back with a sigh. Isa seemed stunned and a little strung out by the explanation which...Lea couldn't blame him. He wasn't even sure if Isa remembered the experiments and if he did, then there was no doubt that wouldn't help his stress.

Gods, what type of experiment had Xehanort been doing? Lea knew he'd been doing terrible experiments regarding the heart yet that wasn't exactly a very good descriptor.

"Lea." He looked up at Isa. Isa continued speaking once he knew he had Lea's attention. "I think...I need some time alone. I just need to digest everything..."

He nodded rapidly. "I get it," Lea said, "We can talk...tomorrow or something, whenever you want to, okay?" He still hadn't even told Isa about the keyblade or...or that Kairi was gone.

Getting up, Lea left the bedroom. Aerith was outside, sitting at the top of the stairs. She looked up, clearly wanting to ask what had happened but didn't want to push. Which was...kind of her, but he didn't need her sympathy right now.

"He needs some time to rest." Lea explained.

She nodded in understanding and stood up. "I'll go start dinner," Aerith said.

Lea gave her a weak thumbs up. "I'll help you out." He hogged down to the kitchen and watched as Aerith started getting all the utensils out of their places. And then a moment later Lea hurried forward and started getting the ingreidents from the fridge.

As they cooked, the rest of the house residents came in from their various activities. Which is to say Yuffie and Squall had stopped sulking and Cid had dragged them back home. Cid helped them out with putting the plates on the table as well as gathering the stuff they needed to give Isa his food.

Once the dinner was done cooking--stir fry--Lea got Isa's plate together. "I'll take him his food." Lea told them and headed out of the room with the plate.

Behind him, he heard Yuffie asking Aerith what he was talking about as the door snapped shut. Lea sighed as he remembered that, yes, they hadn't told the others that Isa was awake. Granted, they didn't really get a chance to do it anyway.

He paused outside Isa's bedroom, staring at the closed door. Ugh, he should just go in, right? He was just delivering food, not trying to continue their talk from earlier. Lea shook himself out of his moment of self-doubt and knocked on the door.

Lea waited a second and opened the door. "Hey, Isa, dinner's ready," He said.

Isa looked back at him from the window. "...Hey, Lea. Thank you." The other teen looked at the food as Lea put it on his bed side table. Lea hesitated before turning to leave again.

"Wait, Lea." He stopped, looking at Isa. He seemed...nervous and a little on edge. "Our families...Kairi...X...Are they gone, too? Along with our home?"

He looked to the window Isa had been staring out of before he nodded. "Y-yeah." Lea choked out. "Yeah, they're gone too." _And I couldn't help them._

Isa closed his eyes. "...Okay. I want to eat my food alone, okay?" He looked away again.

"Yeah, of course, " Lea said and backed away again. He let the door swing shut behind him and he headed back down to the dinner table. As soon as he reentered the room, Yuffie practically threw herself over the table at him.

Squall caught her before she had a chance. "Lemme go, Squall--Leaaa, is it true?? Is that Isa guy awake??" Yuffie demanded from where Squall held her in place.

Lea sighed. "Yes, Isa is awake. He's not really feeling good right now, so leave him alone." He looked away as he sat down at the table. The other four glanced each other before Yuffie slipped out of Squall's hands and sat down.

The rest of the dinner was silent as they all picked at their food. Lea felt a little bad because of how he worded it but how else was he supposed to say that? 'Oh yeah, leave him alone because he wants to be alone?' Still sounded rude.

Once dinner was done, Squall dragged Yuffie off to help clean the dishes while Cid pulled Lea and Aerith to the side. "Will Isa be alright?" He asked.

"Yes, as far as I can see, he'll be alright." Aerith nodded. "There's no signs of any problems, but..." The thirteen year old tailed off and looked away, her hands clasped against her chest.

Yeah, Lea got it. She wasn't a fully trained cleric so she could only check the things she knew how to check. He couldn't blame her and wouldn't--especially as the issue as any issues he might have would be from the experiments and not even Lea knew how to fix those.

He looked away and said, "I'm going to bed."

"Lea--" He shook his head at Cid and turned away. Lea didn't want to hear any sympathetic stuff right now--he just wanted to sleep. He thought everything would start getting better now that Isa was awake but...it seemed like it wasn't any different.

The night's sleep was fitful. Lea kept imagining different terrible things happening to them, Traverse Town, all the worlds. He didn't know why, but it felt like every single time he closed his eyes he saw Isa being devoured by the darkness alongside Kairi.

When he woke up with that image fresh in his mind, Lea jumped out of his bed and rushed out of the room and headed towards Isa's room. He had...He had to make sure Isa was alright. He probably was, because where could he have gone? Yet the still needed to be sure.

Lea opened the door.

And Isa was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> idk i just really like the idea of lea and kairi being siblings okay


End file.
